Frequently Asked Questions

All About The Burg

What are you?
We are a civic engagement platform.
We connect you with your neighbors, local news sources, representatives in government and the community organizations here to serve you. When you open the Burg, you can read about your local news, find out what’s happening in your city, chat with your representatives, and find out what events are being hosted by community organizations. Everything you need to be an engaged and happy neighbor, all in one place.

Why are you called The Burg?
Imagine an Iceberg: on the surface, nonthreatening. Below the surface: a massive unknown. Back in 2015 (well before we had any conceptions of building a company) we started a political podcast with that in mind. The podcast was short-lived and never publicly released (holding our few, feeble episodes forever hostage), but we became enamored with how this metaphor described our political system.
Burg in German translates to community.

I’m a registered voter but your system didn’t confirm me. What’s going on?
Depending on when you registered to vote, it’s possible that the updates haven’t reached our system yet. We’ll be updating our records continuously, but it sometimes takes a few months. Make sure you spell out your full, legal name and notify us if you’re registered but not in the system. We’ll be sure to update your status as soon as possible.

I’m a local representative. How can I sign up?
Hit the local rep icon (a ballot box) on the sign up screen. We have to verify you as a local rep, which will only take a few hours. Check your email for a verification message and you’re in!

I work at a community organization. How can I sign us up?
Hit the community org icon (what??) on the sign up screen. We have to verify you as a community organization, which will only take a few hours. Check your email for a verification message and you’re in!

I’d love to join, but I’m not in LA county. What should I do?
We are planning to scale out to the state of California and beyond in the next few months, so stay tuned!

What are you doing with my data?
Take a look at our privacy policy. It outlines what kind of data collect. We don’t host ads and we are NOT in the business of selling user data to advertisers.

I made a mistake while posting/commenting. How can I fix this?
You can delete or edit a comment or post by hitting the three dots next that comment/post, then go ahead dust yourself off and go for it again.

What do the up and down arrows do? Will people know if I hit the up or down arrow like a "like"?
The up and down arrows are our upvote/down buttons. Give a post an upvote if you think it matters to your community. If not, hit the downvote. All voting is anonymous. The idea here isn't to see who your real friends are, but for the best content to rise through a merit based system. This is how people in the community influence the top posts, so it's important that you get out there and starting up and downvoting!

I’m experiencing a bug or an issue with app. Help?
Sorry about that! This is a beta launch and we certainly don’t have all the bugs ironed out. Drop us a line at the.team@burg.community and we’ll get right on it. We appreciate you helping us out!

Someone is posting horrible stuff. How can I report them?
Yes, you can report a post at any time and our team will take a look. Our policy is not to take down any content unless it is illegal/doxxing/harassment/etc, but if it crosses that line, we certainly will. The most effective way to get rid of bad or ugly content is to downvote it until it's no longer in your immediate feed. Comments with a score of -5 will be automatically collapsed.

This is your community's platform. Help us build it.

We'd love to hear your feedback/questions/concerns. If you want to request a local news group please let us know!